Women's Murder Club Redux: Pilot
by TBorah89
Summary: What if Women's Murder Club had played out differently? This is my take on how things might have gone. What if Lindsay Boxer had a child? Those questions will be answered.
1. Introductions

A/N: This is my first shot at writing WMC I hope you all enjoy it. I'm going to be pulling facts and characters from the books and the show and putting them together in this. Plus I'll be adding in some stuff of my own, I promise that it will turn out better than it sounds.

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><p>Chapter 1: Introductions<p>

Inspector Lindsay Boxer stood surveying a crime scene. The hip that held her service weapon jutted out slightly. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest and she flipped her Chesnutt colored hair over her left shoulder to get it out of her way. Her dark brown eyes studied the scene trying to soak up as much as she could and store it away for later use.

"Boxer, what are your thoughts on this one?" Warren Jacobi asked his partner. He was a black man in his fifties his temples were just starting to gray.

"This guy is dead." Lindsay stated bluntly gesturing to the body sprawled out on the ground.

The man lying on the ground was dressed in biker clothes and his greasy blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

"Way to state the obvious, Linds." Jill Bernhardt told her friend. The ADA had her blonde hair styled in a pixie cut. Her eye for fashion showed in her expensive suit and shoes.

"Hey, I'm just calling it the way that I see it. It's my job to figure out who made him dead, not how he got that way." Lindsay replied with a noncommittal shrug.

"That's what you all keep me around for." Claire Washburn the ME interjected. She was a short black woman who was just the right side of chubby.

"See, Claire gets me." Lindsay grunted. She wasn't in a very good mood at the moment. Being woke up because she had to get to a crime scene was not her idea of the best way to start the morning.

"What's with her?" Jill whispered to Jacobi.

Jacobi shrugged and arched his eyebrows at the same time. "If I understood what makes Boxer tick then I would be a rich man." He whispered back.

Lindsay having heard the exchange wheeled around to glare at her two friends. Before she could say anything her cell phone rang interrupting her thought train. "Boxer," she growled into the phone. She was sure that whoever was on the other end couldn't be bearing good tidings and sure enough she turned out to be right. "Ok, I'll be there in twenty." She said before hanging up.

"That must have been something mighty important to get you to leave a crime scene." Claire told her friend without looking up from the body she was examining. She knew that there was only one person that Lindsay would leave a scene for and if the look on her face was any indication the next time the two met was not going to be a pleasant exchange.

"Jill, unless you want Claire to have another body to work on today you will come with me now. I tend to be less homicidal when I have witnesses around." Lindsay ordered gruffly.

"This can't be good." Jill commented rolling her eyes.

"It's not, that's why I need backup on this one." Lindsay retorted. "Jacobi, stay here and see what you can work out I will be back as soon as I can." She told her partner.

"You sure you're not going to come back in handcuffs?" Jacobi asked her in a highly amused tone.

"I'm positive." Lindsay said glaring at the older man. She loved her partner, but he knew just how to push her buttons. "Jill, we're leaving now," she said as she started stalking off.

"Jilly, be sure that she's gentle." Claire begged her friend.

"I won't let her get too out of hand." Jill assured the older woman. She didn't really know what she could do to stop Lindsay if she got out of hand, but she would think of something if she had to.

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><p>Fifteen minutes later thanks to some erratic driving on Lindsay's part they were parked in front of the local high school. A young man with the same brown eyes and Chesnutt colored hair was waiting for them. He climbed into the Jeep with a cocky gait.<p>

"Do I need to talk to your principal?" Lindsay asked meeting the young man's eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Nope, he said as long as you got me out of here that would be fine with him. He said that he would just talk to you on the phone, since he knows how busy you are." the young man replied with a smirk on his face.

"Alright, tough guy, do you want to tell me what you did to get in trouble on the last day of school?" Lindsay asked him arching her eyebrow. The teen just shrugged his shoulders in response. "Damn it, Gus, that wasn't a rhetorical question. I want an answer now," she barked out.

Gus Boxer fixed his mouth in a hard line as he brought his eyes up to meet his mother's. "I socked a kid in the mouth, but I swear he had it coming to him." he admitted. He wasn't going to let his mother know this, but he was extremely proud of himself.

"Augustus Christopher Boxer, I'm not moving this car until you tell me why you would do something like that." Lindsay put her foot down. Normally that kid got away with murder with her, but she couldn't let him get away with causing trouble at school.

"That punk started it, I only finished it." Gus said crossing his arms over his chest. He really was the male version of Lindsay.

Lindsay was about to lose her cool with her son. The grip that she had on the steering wheel tightened and the vein in her neck was sticking out. Jill took note of this and decided to step in. "Maverick, you better give your mom a straight answer." She advised the boy she thought of as her nephew. She had even used his nickname to get him to come around.

"He was saying stuff about Boxer that I couldn't let stand." Gus relented. He regularly called his mom by her last name because that was just the type of relationship that those two had.

"What did he say?" Lindsay asked. She found it amusing when someone said something about her, very rarely did she feel the need to draw blood over it. Satisfied that her son was going to start talking she put the Jeep in drive and headed off to the Hall where her office was.

"He said things that I rather not repeat in front of Aunt Jill and then when I told him to shut his mouth he pushed me and like I said he totally had the ass beating I gave him coming." Gus replied. He was a hard ass just like Lindsay.

"Gus, look at me." Lindsay ordered him. She didn't go on until his eyes met hers in the mirror again. "I'm not amused by your bullshit right now. I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I don't need you to defend my honor."

"So, I'm just supposed to let some guy call you an ice princess whose only problem is that she's in need of a good fucking?" Gus asked with disbelief in his voice.

"Some kid said that?" Jill asked. Times sure had changed since she had been in high school.

"Yeah, and I didn't find it funny." Gus answered her. He ran his hand through his close-cropped dark hair. He knew that he was in trouble this time.

"Gus, I don't want to hear another word from you right now." Lindsay said to shut him up. She really didn't need to hear anything else.

"Yes, ma'am," Gus said dipping his head in shame. "How much trouble am I in?" he asked.

"That will just have to wait until after I talk to your principal. Your punishment for this afternoon is you have to come to work with me." Lindsay informed him.

"But, mom," Gus whined well aware that he sounded like he was five instead of fifteen.

"Gus, I'm not going to argue with you right now." Lindsay warned him.

"I'm only objecting because Lt. Tom will be there." Gus reasoned with her.

"Maverick, I know how you feel about him, but he is still your dad." Lindsay told him gently.

Gus rolled his eyes. "Right, if you can still call him that after he just up and walked off on us."

"Buddy, you better do what your mom says she's not in a good mood right now." Jill advised him.

"Do you have a case?" Gus asked brightly.

"Yes, and no you can't ask what it's about yet." Lindsay answered his question and the question he was sure to ask next.

"When you have something more to go on can I ask questions?" Gus asked.

"Yes, you know that you can ask questions when I have more to go on." Lindsay promised him.

"Then I guess it won't be a total waste of my day to sit in the bullpen." Gus relented with a loud sigh.

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><p>Cindy Thomas was a red headed young woman of twenty-three. She had a nice firm body that showed off her youth and nice clothes that showed off her curves. At the moment she was on a mission. She was looking for Inspector Lindsay Boxer to pump her for some information. She was shocked but not at all surprised to see that the Boxer sitting at Lindsay's desk wasn't the one that she was looking for.<p>

"You are certainly not the Boxer that I am looking for right now. On the plus side you are better looking and you do have a much better personality." Cindy told Gus with a warm smile. The kid had quickly become the little brother that she had never had.

Gus grinned broadly when he saw Cindy. "Cindy Lou Who, it's nice to see you too. Boxer is down in the morgue with Aunt Claire and Aunt Jill. I can take you to her if you want me to." He offered.

"I'm pretty sure that I should be offended by the fact that Claire and Jill are Aunt Claire and Aunt Jill, but I'm only Cindy Lou Who." Cindy teased him.

Gus gave her a genuine smile that showed off his perfect white teeth. "That's because you're more like an older sister than an aunt." He explained to her.

"Are you here because you want to be here or did you get in trouble again?" Cindy asked him. She knew damn well how difficult he could be at times.

"You know me, what do you think?" Gus asked her.

"Since I'm prone to seeing the best in people, I'm going to say that you're here because you want to be here." Cindy replied.

Gus stood and offered her his arm. "Would you like me to escort you to the morgue?" he asked giving her a little bow.

"I would be delighted to have you for an escort." Cindy said taking his offered arm.

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><p>Lindsay was pacing back and forth in the morgue with her cell phone to her ear. "And you're sure that this other kid hit him first?" she asked. She nodded her head when she got an answer. "He's not in trouble because he was defending himself you just had to send to him home to make sure he cooled off." She was obviously parroting what the person on the other side of the phone had said to her. She laughed at what she heard next. "If only I could afford to take time off. Thanks again, Joe, I know that I owe you big time for keeping him out of trouble again." She disconnected the call.<p>

"What's the verdict?" Claire asked looking up from the body.

"Gus is off the hook, I'm just going to make him squirm for a little bit." Lindsay said with a devilish grin on her face.

"Good, now that it has been decided that you're not going to kill him we really need to talk about his birthday party." Jill said.

"Jill, nothing big, I know how you and Cindy can get when there is shopping involved." Lindsay warned her friend.

"I wouldn't dream of it, but the boy is only going to turn sixteen once." Jill reasoned with her.

"I just figured that I would take him to get his license and then let him hang out with his friends." Lindsay replied.

"You come up with a way to distract him and I will work on giving him the best birthday party ever." Jill said giddy with excitement.

"His birthday isn't for another two weeks." Lindsay reminded her.

"I need every minute of that to put a kick ass party together for him." Jill said like she was talking crazy.

"I don't know why I even bother trying to talk sense into you." Lindsay groaned.

At that moment Gus escorted Cindy into the room.

"Anyway, what do you have on time of death?" Lindsay asked Claire to make it appear as though they had been talking about the case.

"Body temp and rigor put the time of death at between midnight and two this morning." Claire reported.

"Alright, ladies, which one of us were you talking about?" Gus asked knowing them entirely too well.

"We weren't talking about either one of you. The only thing I have to talk about with you is how you are trying to give me gray hairs before my time. And that is something I'm very comfortable discussing with you." Lindsay replied smoothly.

"If they were talking about anyone they were talking about me." Cindy corrected the boy.

"Cindy, you've given us something to talk about after you leave. You couldn't find the morgue by yourself, so you had your boyfriend bring you." Claire was always saying something along those lines, because she knew that it would make Cindy and Gus blush and it made Lindsay's blood pressure go through the roof at the thought of her son dating.

"Ok, you seriously need to keep the ego of yours in check." Jill told her rolling her eyes at the younger woman.

"Really, kid, we have better things to do with our time than talk about you." Lindsay informed her. She was always giving Cindy a hard time because she was the youngest member of their group.

Gus was studying the body that was laid out on his Aunt Claire's table. "Whoever whacked this guy did one hell of a sloppy job. Not one of these bullet wounds is near the other. It's like they weren't even aiming the gun and if they were this is totally the person that I want to get into a gun fight with." He was so used to this stuff that it didn't even faze him anymore.

"Has anyone ever told you that you are Lindsay Boxer with facial hair?" Jill asked him like the thought had just popped into her head.

"I've heard that many times before and always from you, Aunt Jilly." Gus replied.

"That's because it happens to be true." Jill pinched his cheek for good measure on that one.

"Cindy, I'm sure I don't want to ask this question, but what are you doing here?" Lindsay asked the reporter.

"I am here for a story. Let's face it a biker shot dead in an alley makes for a pretty great news story." Cindy informed her.

"Anything that is said stays off the record for now." Lindsay warned her.

"Please, I'm so used to us being off the record that I've put the record away." Cindy assured her.

Gus had moved on from the body and he was now studying the personal effects of the victim. "Wow, this guy was a member of the Road Kings, that's about one step down from being in the Hell's Angels." He exclaimed.

Lindsay looked at him curiously. "How sure of that are you?" she asked him.

"I'm positive, I know my biker gangs pretty well. Lt. Tom used to work biker gangs and I learned a thing or two from that." Gus replied.

"Lt. Tom should really have known better than to show those files to his seven year old son." Tom Hogan said having walked in the room just in time to hear that. He had his dark hair cut so close to his scalp that the skin was visible. He had the most mesmerizing pair of blue eyes ever. "Boxer, are you in the habit of letting our son see things that he probably shouldn't?" he asked his ex-wife.

"He's probably seen worse than this, Tom. Besides you just admitted to showing him files when he was seven, he's almost sixteen now I think that he can handle it." Lindsay replied hotly.

Tom nodded his acceptance of that statement. "Is he in trouble of does he just want to be here?" he asked.

"He's not in any trouble, he's a good kid, Tom. For some reason I can't keep him away from this place." Lindsay replied tipping her hand to her son sooner than she had wanted to. But, she couldn't have Tom thinking that she was a bad mother.

"It probably has something to do with the fact that he has two cops for parents. Being a cop is in his blood." Tom joked.

"Tom, are you down here for a reason?" Lindsay asked. It was best if they kept their conversations limited. Well, best for her anyway she just couldn't stand knowing that Tom wasn't hers anymore and anytime they had a normal conversation it became painfully obvious.

"I wanted to know what you have on our vic." Tom said getting down to business.

"Not a whole hell of a lot. We know that he was shot sometimes between midnight and two this morning and we also know that he was a member of the Road Kings." Lindsay reported to him.

"Keep on it somebody has to know who this guy was." Tom ordered her.

"You should show his picture to the guys in organized crime. If he was a member of the Road Kings then they should know who he was." Gus suggested helpfully.

"I guess I will leave you to your work then." Tom said not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, I tend to get more done without you hovering over my shoulder." Lindsay agreed with him sharply.

If Tom took offense to her tone he didn't let it show he instead turned to his son. "Maverick, if you're up to it I would really like to catch a baseball game with you this summer." He told him.

"I'll have to see what I have on my schedule, I'm a very busy guy." Gus retorted.

The corners of Lindsay's mouth wanted to turn up in a smile upon hearing Tom call their son by his nickname. She could still remember Tom giving him that nickname. Gus had been about three at the time and he pretty much always did the opposite of what she told him to do. Hench forth the reason why Tom called him that, well that and one of his favorite movies was Top Gun.

"Ok then, I'll just give you a call and see what days you have free." Tom said before walking out of the morgue.

"Sure," Gus gave him a shrug. He was a teenage boy; Tom was lucky that he got that much out of him.

"Augustus," Lindsay scolded him.

"What?" Gus asked.

"You don't always have to be so short with him." Lindsay explained.

"He didn't have to leave us either." Gus gave another of his famous shrugs.

"That's it, you get back to the bullpen. I have work to do and I can't concentrate with you in here bugging me." Lindsay ordered him.

"Fine, I'll leave, but I'm not going back to the bullpen. I'm going to go to the file room and check out some of the cold cases." Gus said. He pretty much had free reign when he was at the station and no one thought anything of it because he was such a good kid.

"Just keep your phone on and I'll call you when it's time to go home." Lindsay said wanting to get rid of him.

Gus threw her a mock salute. "Will do, I'll catch you later, Boxer." He said before leaving.

"I swear to God that kid gets more annoying every day." Lindsay sighed.

"That kid gets more like you every day." Claire observed. She had gone back to the body in front of her.

Tom came waltzing back into the room just then. "Linds, I didn't want to ask with the kid in here, but what are you doing for his birthday?" he asked.

"Ask Jill and Cindy those two are in charge of his party. That should give you an idea of how out of hand it is going to get." Lindsay commented.

"Look, I want to buy him a car." Tom told her.

"Tom, if you have ever had that kid drive you anywhere you wouldn't be saying that." Lindsay warned him. She wasn't kidding either, she knew that she wasn't the best driver in the world, but Gus made her look good.

"That's because you're the one who has been teaching him how to drive. I kinda sorta already bought him a car and I just wanted you to know." Tom replied lamely. He just didn't know how to talk to her anymore.

"Tom, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but you're a good dad." Lindsay said smiling softly. She figured that she could give him that much considering all the things he had done that he didn't have to do.

"You know that I love that kid like he was my own." Tom replied. While he was the only dad that Gus had ever known he was not his father. That's why his last name was Boxer instead of Hogan.

"What kind of car is it?" Lindsay asked afraid to know. She knew that Tom was a big kid at heart and he had probably gone overboard.

"A sixty-nine Chevy." Tom reported he was pretty proud of himself for that one.

"Tom, you didn't get him a car you got him a pussy magnet." Jill exclaimed she really wasn't one for editing herself outside of the courtroom.

"Jesus, Jill, don't say that in front of Boxer she'll have a heart attack." Cindy warned her.

"Tom, you're just looking for ways to get him arrested. You know Gus Boxer only has one speed and that's go." Lindsay couldn't help laughing at that.

"He is just like his mother." Tom observed. "Come on, Linds, let me do this one thing for him. The car needs some work and I figured that we could log some quality Maverick and Goose time fixing it up."

"I don't know, the last I checked your fiancé didn't even know about him." Lindsay said skeptically. The last thing she wanted was to see her son get hurt. His real father had already walked away from him when he was an infant. She thought that that entitled him to smooth sailing for a while.

"I swear to you, I'm going to talk to Heather and tell her everything about him. I really want to do this for him." Tom was damn near begging her.

"I guess if that's what you want to do with him then it's up to you. I just want you to know that the first ticket he gets that car becomes mine." Lindsay gave him fair warning.

"Of course, thanks, Linds, I promise that you're not going to regret this." Tom said strolling out of the morgue again. This time there was a more noticeable spring in his step.

"Lindsay, I don't know how you are so cool towards him the man obviously still loves you." Cindy said with her mouth hanging open.

"He very obviously does not, he is getting remarried. The only reason we are that civil to each other is because of Gus and because we have to work together." Lindsay corrected her. She needed to reign herself in if even Cindy was seeing that she still had feelings for Tom then she was in trouble.

"I'm sure that was the reason that you had to tell him that he's a good dad." Jill rolled her eyes.

"He is a good dad, even if he does insist on having those ridiculous nicknames between them." Lindsay said defensively.

"Sure, Linds, just keep telling yourself whatever you have to, to make yourself feel better," Jill muttered.

"Alright, let's get back to the case. Claire, what do you have on the murder weapon?" Lindsay asked changing the subject.

"It's a nine millimeter Glock. I can tell you that for sure, that is the caliber of the slugs that I just pulled out of this guy." Claire reported getting back on topic.

"I'm gonna call Jacobi down here and then I'm going to get him to run this guy's picture by organized crime." Lindsay said more to herself than to anyone else.

"Linds, he's going to make one hell of a cop someday." Jill observed regarding Gus.

"I know, and I'm ashamed that I didn't think of it before he did." Lindsay replied. She really was proud of that boy he thought just like a cop whether he realized it or not.

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><p>AN: So, here's the first chapter I hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Working The Case

A/N: Thanks to Thunder903 for reviewing.

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><p>Chapter 2: Working The Case<p>

Gus was amusing himself at the moment by sitting at his mother's desk with his feet propped up on it reading cold case files. He only took the ones that were so old that they had no hope of being solved. It gave him something to do when he was stuck at the Hall, which considering who his parents were was something that happened to him quite frequently.

The file he was currently reading without a doubt had to do with old school gangland violence. He was really into it, so he looked up with annoyance when he saw a shadow looming over him.

Gus rolled his deep brown eyes when he looked up and saw that his dad was standing there. "What can I do for you, Lt. Hogan?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well, Inspector Boxer, you can start by dropping the attitude." Tom replied just as sarcastically.

Gus smirked at him. "I can't I'm a Boxer the attitude came standard issue."

Tom perched himself on the edge of his ex-wife's desk. "I'll give you that much, you are just like your mother. How about you let me take you to dinner tonight?" he asked hopefully.

"I can't I'm busy." Gus said automatically. Deep down he still loved his dad; he was just pissed as hell with him for the way his marriage to Lindsay had ended.

"Come on, Maverick, we've both gotta eat." Tom reasoned with him.

"This true and I'll just make myself something when I catch the bus home. I harbor no illusions of Boxer making it home early tonight. I know that I'm most likely going to be on my own tonight. Well, I won't be all alone Martha will be with me, but I think you get the point of what I'm trying to say." Gus replied not bothering to check his sarcasm.

"I get what you're trying to say it just isn't going to fly. You're only fifteen and I rather know that you're not in the house all by yourself tonight." Tom told him seriously.

"I'll think about it if you get away from me and let me read my files in peace." Gus offered.

"You and those damn files, I'm really starting to wonder about why you read them all of the time." Tom shook his head.

"Maybe I'm writing a book. God, knows I have enough information in here to write one." Gus scoffed.

"Alright, I'll just leave you to your reading then." Tom said walking off. He really didn't feel like arguing with the boy anymore.

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><p>"Jacobi, tell me that you have some good news for me." Lindsay said crawling into the passenger seat of the unmarked police car.<p>

"I got an ID on our vic." Jacobi said thrusting a file into her hands.

"John Stevens it looks like he has been a small time career criminal since the age of sixteen. It says here the he joined the Road Kings straight out of a hitch in jail when he was twenty-two. He was busted for a bar brawl six months ago but they let him go with a slap on the wrist." Lindsay recited as she gave the file a quick once over. "This guy sounds like a real winner. I can't imagine why anyone would want him dead." She commented sarcastically.

"We're about to go to his last known address and see what we can find out about him there." Jacobi informed her.

"I guess we have to start someplace." Lindsay replied.

Ten minutes later they were pulling up in front of a house that looked like the last time it had had any work done had been during the Reagan administration. The sea foam green paint was chipping and the front door looked like one good gust of wind would knock it over. The hulls of broken down cars and other motorized vehicles littered the front lawn.

"If I had known we were coming to a junk yard I would have made a shopping list before hand." Jacobi commented with a snort.

"Welcome to Gus Boxer's first house out on his own. I'm really convinced that this is what his place is going to look like, I mean you've seen his room." Lindsay retorted. She and Gus had had more fights over the state of his unkempt room than anything.

"Let's go in and have a little chat with these people and see if we can't get some insight into our vic." Jacobi suggested.

"I like the way you think partner." Lindsay agreed. "Now, if these people are going to be as unreceptive as I think they are one of us should go around back just in case."

"I'm an old man, Boxer, and you seem to live for getting to knock the snot out of these punks I'll give you that honor." Jacobi told her.

Lindsay had no intention of arguing with him on this one. A smirk came to her face; any day that she got to knock the hell out of someone was a good day for her.

Jacobi strolled casually up the front walk and to the door. He was giving Lindsay plenty of time to get in place at the back door. When he felt that she had had sufficient time he raised his hand and pounded on the door. "SFPD, open up." He shouted. He heard a rustling behind the door and a second later it was opened by a woman who could have been anywhere in the age rage of thirty to sixty. She was probably closer to the lower end of the spectrum, but her face showed the lines of hard living.

"Can I help you with something?" the woman asked Jacobi.

"I'm Inspector Warren Jacobi with the San Francisco Police Department. I have just a couple of questions that I would like to ask you regarding John Stevens." Jacobi explained to her.

Just as Jacobi had finished explaining Lindsay walked around the front of the house with a bedraggled looking youth. His blonde hair was greasy and the acne badge of the teenager marked his face. He was tall and thin; he looked as if a swift gust of wind would knock him off of his feet.

Lindsay led him up the front walk with his hands cuffed behind his back. She had a scowl on her face and her right eye was now adored with a shiner. She also had a big bruise flowering on her left cheek. "Thanks for the help, partner." She spit out at him sarcastically.

"The way I see it you should have no trouble handling a kid his age. You have tons of practice with it." Jacobi replied not sounding at all repentant.

Lindsay glared at him. "My kid doesn't typically take swings at me he has taken it as holy writ that I can kick his ass with both hands tied behind my back. Apparently this little punk didn't get the memo."

"Johnny, what did you do?" the woman standing at the door asked him.

"I didn't do nothing, Ma, I just walked out the back door and the next thing I know Dirty Harriet here was cuffing me." Johnny answered his mother. He jerked his head in Lindsay's direction to indicate that he was talking about her.

"If you call assaulting an officer not doing anything then I would sure hate to see your version of doing something." Lindsay scoffed.

"Other than arresting my son did you officers have something that you wanted?" the woman asked.

"We would like to ask you a couple of questions about John Stevens." Lindsay answered her.

"You've got him handcuffed right now." the woman spit out sarcastically.

"I'm talking about the elder of the two, Mrs. Stevens." Lindsay said going out on a limb. She was willing to bet even money that this woman was the wife of the man who was now lying on a slab in the morgue.

"John didn't come home last night, so whatever it is you think he's done he probably did it." Mrs. Stevens informed them.

"When is the last time you saw your husband?" Jacobi asked her.

"He left here at about nine yesterday morning and I haven't seen or heard from him since then. God knows that it isn't unusual for him to go off for days at a time without letting me know where he's going to be." Mrs. Stevens huffed. "What's this about anyway? What did my shit for brains husband do this time?" she asked.

Jacobi knew that Lindsay could have all the finesse of an elephant when she was as enraged as she was at the moment so he decided to take the lead on this one. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, Mrs. Stevens, but your husband was murdered last night." He informed the woman.

"I've been waiting on this visit for years. I always knew that that stupid son of a bitch was going to end up getting himself killed." Mrs. Stevens snorted.

"We're going to need you to come by the morgue to ID the body and make sure." Lindsay told her.

"We're also going to need to know the names of the people that your husband liked to kick around with." Jacobi pressed on.

" What about my son?" Mrs. Stevens asked.

"I think that just this once Inspector Boxer can be talked into giving him the benefit of the doubt." Jacobi answered for Lindsay.

Lindsay gave an exaggerated eye roll and then made a big show of taking the cuffs off the kid. "My advice to you is to stay out of trouble, because if I ever have to cuff you again they won't come off until your ass is sitting in a cell."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Johnny said throwing her a cocky smirk.

"Was your husband having any problems with his job that you were aware of?" Lindsay asked to keep from strangling the teenager.

Mrs. Stevens scoffed at that question. "He couldn't keep a job he was supposed to go look for one yesterday. I highly doubt that's what he did though. He probably ended up going out riding with those friends of his getting in trouble."

"Any idea where they would have headed?" Jacobi asked.

"They would have rode around for awhile and they would have ended up at the Drunken Fish, that is the bar that they always hang out in." Mrs. Stevens answered.

Lindsay knew that this information was on track because they had found his body about a block from that bar. "Ok, that's all the questions that we have right now." she pulled a business card out of her wallet and handed it to the older woman. "If you can think of anything else that might be helpful give us a call." She ordered.

"What did you think?" Jacobi asked his partner when they got back in the car.

"I don't think that the wife had anything to do with it. I think that the son is up to no good, but I'm not sure if he's involved in the father's death." Lindsay replied. She pulled down the visor and checked out her injuries in the mirror. "I'll say this for the little shit head someone taught him how to hit."

"You gonna be ok?" Jacobi asked her.

Lindsay sighed in disgust and raised the visor. "I'll live, I'm not sure that I'll make it through this with my pride in tact though."

"I won't tell the kid that you got your ass kicked and if you don't say anything then he will never know." Jacobi told her. He knew that she wasn't looking forward to Gus finding out about her getting hurt.

"I'm going to have to get some makeup to hide this before I see him again. He freaks out every damn time I get hurt." Lindsay sighed and rolled her eyes.

"He only worries because he loves you so much." Jacobi stated the obvious.

"I'm the parent it's my job to worry about him, not the other way around." Lindsay pointed out to him.

"Well, you need somebody to worry about you every now and then, Boxer. You don't let anyone else get close enough to do any good." Jacobi said not caring that he was probably going to piss her off.

"I can worry about myself, God knows I have enough practice at it, I've been doing it my whole life." Lindsay replied.

"Boxer, one of these days you are going to realize that we all love you and we only want you to be happy." Jacobi reasoned knowing that she hadn't really been listening to a word of what he had just said.

* * *

><p>"Thanks for rescuing me from the bullpen for a little while, Cindy." Gus smiled at Cindy from across the table. They were sitting a restaurant that was just across the street from the Hall of Justice.<p>

"I'm sure that whatever you did for your mom to punish you couldn't be bad enough to warrant death by extreme boredom." Cindy joked with him.

Gus now wore a look of mock hurt on his face. "I will have you know that that one cut me deeply, Cindy Lou Who. Earlier you said that you didn't think that I did anything wrong." He put his hand over his chest to emphasize his point.

"Gus, I know that you didn't choose to hang out in the bullpen on your last day of school. Not only that, but you should still be in school right now. So, I'm thinking that you wouldn't be there unless you were in trouble." Cindy called him on his bullshit.

Gus shrugged. "Ok, you caught me. Some kid said some things about my mom that I didn't like, so I slugged him in the mouth on principle. Besides that the idiot made the mistake of hitting me first." He admitted candidly.

"What exactly did he say?" Cindy asked. She knew how the teen was about his mother.

"He said that she was an ice princess whose only problem was that she is in need of a good fucking." Gus felt his blood boil just repeating what that little creep had said.

_Well,__that __kid __was __right __about __one __part __of __what __he __said __anyway.__Lindsay __is __pretty __long __overdue __in __the __getting __laid __department._She thought to herself she knew better than to voice any of that out loud. "I don't think I even want to know what brought a comment like that on." Cindy finally replied.

"He was pissed because I was talking to his sister." Gus said rolling his eyes.

"Boxer, I know you, you were probably doing more than just talking." Cindy chuckled.

"Ok, so maybe I kissed her, but still that was all that happened. It still didn't give him the right to say things like that about my mother. I hit him more for that than I did for hitting me." Gus explained.

"You really love your mom don't you, Gus?" Cindy asked him. She knew that for the most part everyone loved their parents, but Gus' relationship with Lindsay was so much more than that. That kid hero-worshiped his mother and he didn't care who knew it.

"Of course I do, I mean she was only eighteen when I was born, but still she managed to keep me, go to college, and she turned into one kick ass detective. I only hope that one day I make her as proud as she has made me." Gus answered her.

"That's why you're always so down on Tom?" Cindy asked him.

"Tom walked out on her when she needed him the most. I'm the only one who will ever really and truly know what she's feeling at any given time. But, Tom, he knew her, he knew that she needed him and he still walked. That case really tore her up and she still isn't at peace with it." Gus replied.

Cindy smiled at him showing off her perfect teeth. "You take good care of your mom, Gus. She might not always acknowledge it, but I know that she appreciates having you to lean on."

"There are times that I feel like that I'm the parent and she's the child. Just don't let her know that I said that, because she would punch me in the balls or something like that." Gus chuckled.

"That is putting it mildly I'm pretty sure that she would castrate you if she heard you say something like that." Cindy laughed right along with him.

"Or with her she may only threaten to shoot me, which she also does on a daily basis. That is only after she tells me that she isn't amused by my bullshit." Gus added.

"That's because you aren't as amusing as you seem to think you are, Mr. Boxer." Jill told him sliding in the seat next to Cindy.

Gus grinned widely at her. "I'm surprised to see you here, I would have bet even money that you were still locked away in that office of yours, Aunt Jill."

"I had to get out of the office for a little while I find that if I stay in there too long I start thinking too much like a lawyer and less like a normal person." Jill replied.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you earlier, but thanks for saving me from the wrath of Lindsay Boxer earlier." Gus said sounding grateful.

Jill smiled at him. "I couldn't let her do anything to hurt you, you're like the only guy who doesn't let me down."

"I told you, if that boyfriend of yours is giving your trouble you can always tell him to come see me and I'll set him straight." Gus offered making a show of flexing his muscles.

"I think you've done enough fighting for one day, slugger." Jill said shaking her head at him.

"I think that I've still got a couple of good rounds in me." Gus cracked.

"You seriously are your mother's son, I don't even know what to say to you sometimes." Cindy wore a look of disbelief on her face.

"Cindy, when you've known him as long as I have you will realize that you just have to ignore him." Jill advised her.

"I don't want to ignore him, I happen to find Gus Boxer pretty damn fascinating." Cindy looked at Gus from under her long eyelashes as she spoke.

"I'm a pretty interesting guy, Aunt Jill, I don't know why you would ignore me when I talk. Cindy is right to hang on to every word I say, you never know when I'm going to have a good idea." Gus could be just a tad bit full of himself at times.

"Gus, you have a very healthy ego. That is something else that you got from your mother." Jill said rolling her eyes at the youth.

"You can't hold it against me that I act just like Boxer. As far as I'm concerned it's a good thing." Gus smirked back and the two older women just shook their heads at him.

* * *

><p>"Claire, tell me that you found something worth while." Lindsay begged her friend when she walked into the cold sterile environment of the morgue.<p>

"I can tell you that he was no angel, but I'm sure you already knew that considering who he liked to keep company with." Claire replied and then she caught sight of how her friend looked. "Lindsay, what happened?" she asked looking at her with concern shining in her eyes.

"I got into a fight with some punk kid." Lindsay answered her like it was no big deal.

"Well, since I know that Gus knows better to even think about raising a hand to you I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you had a rough time with a suspect." Claire guessed.

"Yeah," Lindsay confirmed. "That's the reason I'm down here right now. I have to cover up this bruise and black eye before my kid sees me. He will flip his lid if he finds out that I got hurt."

"You can safely go to your desk and do something about covering that up. I happen to have it on good authority that Cindy took the boy wonder to lunch with her." Claire informed her.

"Good, getting him something to eat is one less thing that I have to worry about at the moment." Lindsay sighed. "What do you have on our vic?" she asked getting back on topic.

"There was definitely some prolonged drug usage his body shows the signs of it. I won't know what kind of drug it was until I get the tox screens back." Claire answered.

"Besides the gunshot wounds, was there any other trauma to the body?" Lindsay questioned her.

"No, baby girl, I can't say that there was. I know that it's not a lot to go on, but you know if I had anything else I would give it to you." Claire replied.

"I know you would, Butterfly, I don't doubt that for a second." Lindsay said giving her a smile.

"Linds, you doing ok?" Claire asked her out of concern.

Lindsay touched her face gingerly. "This is nothing, I've had worse before, I'll be fine. It's nothing that some aspirin and a beer won't cure." She assured her.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it." Claire corrected her.

"Claire, I just don't feel like getting into this right now if this is about Tom. I have a murder investigation to conduct and I can't do that if Lt. Tom is on my mind." Lindsay sighed. She hated admitting that she still had feelings for her ex-husband, especially since it would do her no good. Tom was getting remarried soon and that was a pretty big clue that he didn't feel anything for her anymore.

"Ok, consider the subject dropped." Claire said throwing her hands up in a sign of surrender. She didn't bother to point out the fact that Lindsay had been the one to bring up Tom.

* * *

><p>"Augustus Christopher Boxer, get your feet off of my desk I have to work here." Lindsay snapped at her son when he propped his feet up upon sitting down across from her.<p>

"How'd you know it was me?" Gus asked her. He didn't stop to take into account that he was talking to one of the best homicide detectives of all time.

"You're the only person I know that makes himself feel so at home at my desk." Lindsay answered him. She hoped that she had done a good job covering up her bruise and her black eye. She knew that she really didn't feel like hearing from him when he found out that she had gotten hurt. She knew that he would freak out.

"Touché," Gus countered he couldn't think up a valid argument for that one.

Lindsay picked up one of the files that he had been reading and waved it in front of his face. "Do you care to tell me what you were doing with this?" she asked him arching an eyebrow.

"I was doing a little light reading. I don't have anything else to do when I'm stuck here, so I figured that I might as well make it worth my while." Gus gave her one of his patented shrugs.

Lindsay only sighed and rolled her eyes upon gleaning this information from her son. "How was lunch with Cindy?" she asked him deciding to let the subject drop. She really didn't want to know what he had been doing with the file for a fifty-year-old homicide.

"It was interesting to say the least. It got me out of here for a little while, so I'm not going to complain about it." Gus told her.

"Well, you've only got to do your time for a couple more hours and then I'll have one of the uniforms drop you off at home." Lindsay informed him.

"Mom, everyone thinks I'm enough of a freak as it is. I don't need cops dropping me off and making it worse." Gus's voice was dangerously close to the edge of whining.

"Gus, I need to know that you got home safe, the last thing I need to be doing is worrying about you when I'm trying to conduct an investigation." Lindsay reasoned with him.

"You won't have to worry about that, Linds, I already told him that as soon as quitting time rolls around I'm taking him out to dinner and we can hang out until you get off." Tom said coming over to her desk. If he was being honest about it, he looked over her shoulder more than he did any of his other detectives. That was only because it was the only time she would let him get close to her.

"That should reassure me, but for some reason it doesn't." Lindsay commented dryly. "Oh, wait, I know why, it's because you two are dangerous together." She snapped her fingers like she had just remembered that piece of information.

"Come on, Viper, I promise that Maverick and I won't do anything remotely dangerous or fun for that matter." Tom said holding his fingers up in the Boy Scout salute.

Lindsay rolled her eyes and sighed. She had to fight the smirk she felt forming at hearing his old nickname for her. She really didn't have the heart to tell Tom to take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut when all he wanted to do was spend some time with his son. "Ok, I would really appreciate it if you could take care of him for the night. I'm sure that the two of you have a lot to catch up on." She gave Tom a pointed look as she spoke. Her meaning was clear; he needed to tell Gus that he was getting remarried before he found out the hard way.

"Whatever you want you've got." Tom assured her with a wink. He didn't know if he was going to tell Gus about him getting remarried yet, he kinda just wanted to spend some drama free time with his son first.

* * *

><p>AN: Here is the next chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I'm sorry it took me so long to get it out. Until next time please review.


	3. Missing Pieces

A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers.

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Missing Pieces<p>

Tom and Gus were sitting in a pizza parlor that wasn't far from the Hall of Justice. Tom looked like an excited child at Christmas to be spending time with his son. For his part Gus was being a typical bratty teenager. He didn't plan on making this easy on his dad at all.

"So, how has school been?" Tom asked the young man seated across from him cheerfully.

"Fine," Gus answered with one of his famous shrugs.

"You playing any sports?" Tom tried again.

"Football, wrestling, and baseball." Gus listed he really didn't want to be having this conversation right now.

"Have you been doing any dating?" Tom asked with a knowing grin.

"Not really," Gus replied rolling his eyes.

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He should have known that this wasn't going to be easy. Gus really was the male version of his mother and that made him difficult by nature. "Gus, I'm really trying here. I know that it has been awhile since we've talked like this and I'm trying to catch up with you." he explained to him.

"Whose fault is that?" Gus asked him with an arched eyebrow, but he didn't wait for an answer before pressing on. "Tom, do you really want to have an awkward dinner filled with idle chit chat and boring pleasantries?"

"You know that this doesn't have to be any more awkward than you insist upon making it. I'm really trying here, Maverick, but that means that you're going to have to put forth a little bit of effort in this too." Tom tried having a logical conversation with his son.

"Maybe you should have thought about that when you were walking out on Boxer. You should have known that I wouldn't be able to forgive you for that. The one time that she needed your love and support the most you left her high and dry. This isn't about me, this is all about what you did to her." Gus replied reasonably.

Tom sighed, "Gus, I know that what I did was wrong, but you have to understand that things between your mother and I were volatile even at the best of times. We both have explosive personalities and that could only end in fireworks. I honestly thought that she would ask me not to go. I can see now that her pride wouldn't let her and by the time I figured that out it was too late for me to come back."

"It was never too late for you to come back, Tom. You're the one who made it too late, the minute mom saw how much you walking out hurt me she was done with you." Gus pointed out to him.

"You had one father walk away from you and you were his own flesh and blood. Then I came along and made you my son in every way that counts and then I walked out on you too after everything that we have been through together. It was bad enough that your biological father walked out on you, but it was worse when I did it, because I chose to love you and take care of you. Augustus Christopher, I'm more sorry for what I did to you than you will ever know." Tom apologized. "And I promise that I'm going to be there for you from now on." He swore.

"It's going to take a lot more than some words to make me put my trust in you again, but it is a start." Gus relented. He could tell that Tom was genuinely contrite for the way that he had behaved and he figured it wouldn't hurt to give the guy one more chance. Besides that he really missed having a dad. He had spent the first three or four years of his life without a male role model. Then when Lindsay was around twenty-one or twenty-two she had gone to the police academy and that's where she had met Tom.

"I promise you that you won't regret giving me a second chance." Tom grinned at him.

"I hope not." Gus replied. "Now, let's eat I'm starving." Now that was a typical teenage boy response.

"I'm sure that you must be starving. You never have been able to go more than a few hours without something to eat." Tom joked with him.

"I will have you know that I am a growing boy and I have to have my nutrients." Gus joked right back. He had to admit that it felt good to have a man to talk to again. He loved his mom, but there were just some things he couldn't say to her that he could say to Tom without having to feel embarrassed.

* * *

><p>It was late by the time that Lindsay finally made it home to the apartment that she shared with her son and her dog. She tossed her keys on the table by the door and then she went through the process of unhooking her gun and badge from her belt before adding them to the table.<p>

The only light on in her modest apartment was the living room light. The rest of the dwelling was pitch black and that told her that it was likely Gus was sleeping. She made her way into the kitchen and flipped on the light. She found the door to the microwave open and a plate sitting inside of it with a note.

_Boxer, I didn't know what time you were going to get home, so I made you some dinner. Try to get some sleep tonight, so you can catch the bad guys in the morning. _

_Love, Gus_

Lindsay shook her head and chuckled. For her son to be a teenager he still acted like an innocent little boy at times. She smiled fondly while thinking that he took really good care of her. As unfair as it was she knew that he sometimes took better care of her than she was able to take of him. She often thought that maybe he would have been better off if she would have given him up, but she always pushed that to the back of her mind because she didn't know how she would live without him.

Lindsay ate quickly with only the TV on to keep her company. She finished her food and drained the beer that she had had with it before getting into the shower. She stepped out the shower and dressed in her sleep clothes before she prepared to go through her nightly ritual of locking things up.

After she made sure that all the doors and windows were locked she turned out the lights. Her last stop before going to sleep was her son's room. A sliver of silver moonlight fell across the room giving her just enough light with which to study her son's sleeping form.

She had to shake her head sadly as she noted that he was starting to look more like a man and less like a little boy. She didn't know what she would do with herself once he left the nest, but she was sure that she would be able to get by just fine.

She very carefully made her way to Gus's bedside. She reached out with her left hand and brushed her fingertips softly across his face. "I love you more than you will ever know, Augustus Christopher Boxer. I know that the way we have been living lately isn't fair to you and I promise that things are going to get better." She swore her voice never getting higher than a hushed whisper as she spoke to her son.

Gus started stirring and his intense brown eyes flew open when he sensed that someone was in his room. After his eyes adjusted to the lack of light in the room he was able to determine that the presence he felt was that of his mother. "Mom," he said his voice was thick with sleep.

Lindsay smiled down at her son softly. "Shh, go back to sleep, baby, I was only checking on you." she told him.

"Did you get your food?" Gus asked. He knew that if he didn't stay on top of things his mom would forget to eat.

"Yes I did, thank you for being so thoughtful. The last thing I wanted to do was cook after the day that I have had." Lindsay replied.

"It's my job to take care of my best girl." Gus gave her a sleepy smile.

"No, it's my job to take care of you not the other way around." Lindsay protested.

"We take care of each other." Gus corrected her.

"Did you have a nice time with your dad?" Lindsay asked him.

"I actually did, I don't always act like it, but I do miss him." Gus informed her.

"I know you do." Lindsay responded. She stopped herself from saying that she too missed Tom.

"I just don't want you to think that I'm leaving you behind." Gus said. He really worried about her not having anyone.

Lindsay bent over and kissed him on his forehead. "Baby, the last thing I want you to do is worry about me. You have to live your life and not worry about how it is going to affect me." she reasoned with him.

"I love you, Boxer." Gus told her.

"I love you too, Gus. Now get some sleep." Lindsay said before kissing him on the head again.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Lindsay woke to a loud clanging noise. It took her a moment to locate the source of what had interrupted her sleep, but after a moment she smelled coffee brewing and she knew without a doubt that her son was in the kitchen.

She slipped on her robe and her house shoes before padding to the kitchen. She found her son standing at the stove cooking what appeared to be the entire contents of their refrigerator. "Am I going to have to get a second job just to pay for your food bill?" she asked in an amused tone.

Gus turned around and smiled at his mother. "This isn't just for me this is for you too." He corrected her.

Lindsay eyed him suspiciously. "I think you're up to something. First dinner and now breakfast." She called him out.

"I'm not up to anything." Gus denied.

Lindsay shrugged and pursed her lips. "I'll agree with you on that about dinner, because you almost always leave food out for me when I work late, but very rarely do you get up early enough to make breakfast." She got herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.

Gus laid plates of bacon and toast on the table before going back to the stove and plating the eggs that he had been cooking. He grabbed some silverware out of the drawer before he too sat down. "I was kinda wondering how much trouble I'm in for what happened yesterday." He explained to her.

Lindsay gave him a knowing grin. "And you just thought that if you got me all buttered up that I would go easier on you." she stated bluntly.

"I figured that it couldn't hurt." Gus admitted as he dug into his breakfast. He couldn't really enjoy his food while he was wondering if he was in trouble or not.

Lindsay could see the wheels turning in his head as he thought about the countless numbers of punishments that she could cook up for him. She decided that he had had long enough to worry about what she was going to do with him. "You're not in any trouble, Gus. I talked to your principal yesterday and he told me that you were just defending yourself. I can't get on to you for taking up for yourself."

"Really?" Gus asked her brightly.

"Really, but I don't want you making a habit out of doing things like this. You're getting older now and you need to learn how to control your temper. Sometimes it's better for you to just walk away. I understand why you can't always do that, but there are some cases when you need to make an effort." Lindsay answered him.

"I promise that I will, but that kid shouldn't have said what he said about you and he shouldn't have put his hands on me." Gus replied.

"That's another thing, Augustus, I don't need you to defend my honor. I'm a big girl; I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I don't want you to get in trouble because of me." Lindsay said giving him a meaningful look.

"Mom, what I told you he said wasn't all that he said." Gus informed her.

"What else did he say, Gus?" Lindsay questioned him.

"He also said that I was also such a reject that I not only managed to chase one father off, but I had chased two off." Gus reported.

"Gus, your father was an idiot, but that's ok because we're better off without him. As for Tom he didn't leave because of you, he left because of me." Lindsay said laying her hand on top of his.

"But, he didn't have to distance himself from me. I figure he finally realized what he got himself into by taking me on and he got tired of it." Gus refuted.

Lindsay shook her head and sighed. "Gus, Tom loves you, he just made a mistake. Trust me, if I know nothing else in this world, I know that your dad loves you. I don't want you to ever doubt that."

Gus really didn't feel like dwelling on this subject so he tried to find a way to change the topic. "How is the case going?" he asked.

"The case is going fine, it's just a little slow right now. Your Uncle Jacobi and I are going to question some of this guy's friends today. We'll see how it goes from there." Lindsay reported. "Are you coming to work with me today or are you going to stay here?" she asked him.

"I figured that I would come to work with you for a little bit. I want to finish that file that I started reading yesterday. It was actually pretty interesting." Gus replied.

Lindsay shook her head, but she was grinning. "Gus, you are not normal at all and I strongly suspect that that is my fault."

"It's in my blood, not only are both my parents cops, but my grandfather was a cop too." Gus corrected her.

Lindsay felt a twinge that she couldn't identify at the mention of her father. "Yeah, Marty is where we both get this damn sickness I suppose." She agreed with him.

"Grandma used to tell me that Aunt Kat was the only hope that she had for having a normal child." Gus chuckled.

"You remember your grandma?" Lindsay asked her son. Her mother had died right around the time that she entered the academy.

"I remember her a little bit, it's not like I remember much. I was still really little when she died." Gus replied.

"Alright, I guess since we're both finished with breakfast we should start getting ready. I have to leave soon, so I have some hope of getting home at a reasonable hour tonight." Lindsay said standing up.

"You know that you never get home at a reasonable time when you're working a case. It's a good thing that Martha and I enjoy each other's company." Gus joked.

"I feel sorry for that poor dog. Not only does she have to spend most of the day alone, but then she has to babysit you." Lindsay joked right back with him.

"I will have you know that I don't need a babysitter, I'm going to be sixteen soon." Gus protested sounding highly offended.

"Sure you don't," Lindsay said making a big show of rolling her eyes at him.

"If that is how you feel I will just move in with Cindy Lou Who. A young woman like her needs a roommate and I'm sure that she is better company than you are, Boxer." Gus zinged her.

"Gus, just go get dressed." Lindsay ordered pointing towards his bedroom.

"Fine, ruin all my good fun." Gus stuck his tongue out before putting the dirty dishes in the sink and making his way to his bedroom. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face his mom again. "By the way, Boxer, how did you get that bruise?" he asked.

Lindsay cussed mentally. "It's no big deal I just had a little run in yesterday. I promise you that it is nothing serious, it's just a little sore this morning." She said trying to appease him before he made a big deal out of it.

"It looks like you got into a fight." Gus maintained stubbornly.

"It was nothing that exciting I just had a little trouble with a subject. It's nothing for you to worry about." Lindsay assured him.

"Ok, if you're sure." Gus relented and he walked off to his bedroom.

Lindsay threw her hands up in the air she didn't know what to do with that kid sometimes.

* * *

><p>Cindy sat at the desk in her office staring at the blank document on the computer screen in front of her. For the life of her she couldn't get her brain to transmit a usable idea to her fingertips. Every time she got a line down she erased it and went back to the drawing board. Of course it would probably help if Lindsay and Jacobi had more that they could tell her. As it stood they didn't more anymore facts about the case than she did. She knew that it wouldn't be long before her editor was on her to have something in.<p>

Times like this she knew it sometimes helped to go hang around the police station to see what she was able to find out. Lindsay and Jacobi didn't realize it, but more often than not they helped her by saying things that they didn't mean to say in front of her. Hell, even talking to Claire helped her. She just needed anything interesting that she could turn into a story, it didn't even have to be all that good.

One of the things that she hated most about being a reporter was the terminal case of writer's block that sometimes presented itself when she was in the middle of a story. Slamming her fingers on the keyboard in frustration and banging her head lightly on the desk did little to help the situation. So, she yanked her desk drawer open and pulled her purse out. She was going to find something to print one way or another.

* * *

><p>"Butterfly, I could use some good news." Lindsay announced as she stepped into the morgue. She had a feeling that this was going to be one of those cases and she was hoping that she was wrong.<p>

Claire picked up a file and handed it to Lindsay. "Well, I don't know about good news, but I do have news. This is the tox report." She replied.

Lindsay quickly scanned over the report. "Hillbilly Heroin, I should have known that it would be something like that." she commented with a snort.

"So, the guy was on meth. Does that help you at all?" Claire asked her friend.

"It gives me one more lead to check out and that was one more lead than I had yesterday. It's entirely possible that if he was using then he was also involved in the manufacture and distribution of it." Lindsay informed her.

Claire nodded her head thoughtfully. "Did Gus tell you how things went with Tom last night?" she asked out of curiosity.

"He said that he had a good time and he didn't say much else than that. It probably didn't help that I was talking to him at like two this morning either." Lindsay replied with a shrug. That was another thing that her son apparently got from her.

"Did he say anything about Heather?" Claire asked.

"I'm reasonably sure that Tom didn't tell him about Heather. I know my son, if Tom had said anything to him Gus would have told me about it." Lindsay answered. She knew that Tom really needed to tell Gus or he was just going to be even more pissed off when he finally found out.

Tom as if he knew that he was being talked about breezed into the room at that moment. He had a huge smile plastered on his face. "Lindsay, you're just the woman that I was looking for." He announced happily.

"Tom, if this is about the case I don't know anymore than I knew yesterday." Lindsay told him flatly.

"This isn't about the case, this is about the absolutely wonderful time that I had with our son last night." Tom replied. There was pretty much nothing that could bring him down right now.

"You didn't tell him about Heather." Lindsay stated bluntly.

"I want to try to get things between us worked out a little bit before I tell him about Heather. I don't want him to go back to being pissed off at me just yet." Tom explained to her.

"That's your call, and I'm telling you the longer you wait to tell him the worse he is going to take it." Lindsay advised him.

"Linds, he has your spirit he'll be able to take it." Tom assured her.

"I know that he'll be able to take it, I'm just not sure that your relationship with him will be able to take it." Lindsay corrected him.

"I'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Tom replied.

Claire looked between the exes and shook her head. "Did you two plan on getting some work done today? I would really like it if I could release this body while I'm still young." She asked them sarcastically.

"Claire, we planned on getting work done Tom just needed on little advice on how he should handle our son." Lindsay retorted snappishly. She hadn't meant to snap at her best friend, but she couldn't help it.

"So, where are you with the case?" Tom asked finally getting to business matters.

"Well, I just got the tox report and from the looks of it this guy was on meth. That gives me an angle to check out. When I have more than that to go on I promise that you'll be one of the first to know." Lindsay assured him.

"Follow up on that and get back to me if you don't have everything that you think you need to conduct this investigation." Tom told her going into his superior officer mode.

"Trust me, if there is something that I think I need that I don't have I'll let you know." Lindsay replied.

"If this guy was into as much stuff as it appears that he was he is going to be on our radar." Tom told her unnecessarily.

"I've got a call into organized crime and I'm getting ready to go put a call into vice. They are the ones who are most likely to have dealt with him before. I'm sure that something is going to shake loose sooner or later." Lindsay responded. She hated it when he acted like she didn't know how to do her job.

"I would really like for you to get this taken care of in a expedient manner. I don't want these bikers to start a territory war and have innocent people get caught in the middle of it." Tom more or less ordered her.

"I said that I would take care of it and I meant it, Tom." Lindsay replied through clenched teeth.

"Just see that you do." Tom retorted before walking out of the morgue. It hated to admit it, but his ex-wife could still piss him off like no other.

* * *

><p>"Gus, for some reason I'm not surprised to see you here today." Cindy commented when she once again found the wrong Boxer sitting behind Lindsay's desk.<p>

Gus held up the file that he had been reading and showed it to her. "I started reading this file yesterday and I didn't get a chance to finish it. I wanted to read it all before Boxer sent it back to storage on me." he informed her.

"Normal kids your age would be off enjoying the first day of summer vacation." Cindy pointed out to him.

"Normal kids my age don't have two cops for parents. Nor do they have a mother who freaks out if she doesn't know where they are every second of the day. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't come to work with her today she would have sent me to my Aunt Kat's for the duration of this case. She doesn't like leaving me home alone if you haven't noticed." Gus replied.

"I've noticed that your mom always knows where you are." Cindy agreed with him.

"That's just Lindsay's way, I'm sure that you're used to it by now, Cindy." Tom observed as he walked up to the pair.

"What do you need, Tom?" Gus asked. While they were making progress he still wasn't quite ready to forgive his father yet.

Tom pulled something out of his jacket pocket and flashed it at Gus. "I got two tickets to the Giants game tonight if you're interested. I figure that your mom will probably be working late again. It will give you something to do so you don't have to spend the whole night alone." He tempted him. He knew that there was a very slim chance of Gus turning down baseball tickets.

"Thomas, how could you even ask me such a question? Only a fool turns down baseball tickets and my momma didn't raise no fool." Gus professed solemnly.

"I'll agree with you on that one I might have raised a highly suspicious individual, but I didn't raise a fool." Lindsay said walking up on the group. "Cindy, I'm not even going to ask what you're doing here, because I don't want to know at the moment." She addressed her friend.

"You don't mind if I go tonight?" Gus asked her.

"Gus, I'm not going to be home much until I get this case solved. Go with your dad, I won't be home until late tonight, you might as well do something fun with your time. I promise that I'll make it up to you soon." Lindsay told him in reply.

"How good are these seats?" Gus asked turning to Tom.

"Come into my office with me and we'll talk." Tom replied. He could sense that Lindsay wanted to talk to Cindy without them around.

"Alright, I guess I can take a break from my file." Gus said getting up to follow him.

"What do you want, Cindy?" Lindsay asked her a hint of resignation in her voice.

"I was just wondering if you had any leads in the case that you got yesterday." Cindy answered her.

"Cindy, you know that I can't talk to you about the specifics of an open case. But, if I were you I would check out the Road Kings and all things associated with them." Lindsay replied.

"Ok," Cindy nodded in response she knew that that was Lindsay's way of telling her something without telling her.

* * *

><p>AN: Here is the next chapter I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm sorry for the long wait in getting it out. Until next time please review.


	4. Tough Breaks

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Tough Breaks<p>

Cindy was well aware that what she was currently doing could be considered foolish at best and down right suicidal at worst, but if she wanted to keep her position at the paper she had to do some things that could be deemed dangerous.

Her pale blue Bug was out of place sitting in the parking lot of a seedy looking biker bar. She turned on the dome light and studied her reflection in the rearview mirror. She pulled a tube of bright red lip-gloss out of her purse and applied it liberally. She looked down and adjusted her low cut top so that her cleavage showed. She tousled her strawberry blonde locks to look the part she was trying to play.

Taking a deep breath and collecting her wits she got out of the car. She was dressed in a halter-top and a very tight pair of leather pants a pair of dangerously high heels set off the outfit.

"Ok, Cindy, confidence is key, just walk in there like you own the place and you won't have any problems." Cindy muttered to herself. She had no reason to be nervous it wasn't like she hadn't done things like this before. Granted it had been before she started working the crime desk, but she still had experience with this type of thing.

She walked in the door of the bar and she knew that she had dressed correctly. As a matter of fact she was almost wearing too many clothes. She took a seat at the bar and shot a flirty smile at the bartender.

Cindy had decided that the best place to start with digging up dirt on the Road Kings was in the bar that they frequented. It made the most sense to her she was likely to hear something important to her story in here.

"What'll it be, sweetheart?" The bartender asked when he lumbered over to her. He was a big guy of about six-five and well over two hundred pounds. He had a weasel like face with pockmarks left over from a bad bout with acne. His blue eyes were bright and intelligent. His bright red hair only served to further draw attention to his ugly features.

"I'll take a beer." Cindy replied giving him a charming grin. Charm was key when trying to coax information out of a subject. She was just as good as what she did as Lindsay was at interrogating a suspect. It a lot of ways the two things were very similar. The only difference was Cindy used a little honey to catch flies while Lindsay put up the badass bitch routine.

The bartender popped the cap off of a beer and set it in front of her. "Here you go,"

"Thanks," Cindy flashed her dazzling smile at him again.

"A woman after my own heart." A man said sliding on the barstool next to hers.

"How's that?" Cindy asked giving him a flirty smile.

"Any woman who can drink beer instead some fruity drink is alright in my book." The man replied. He had coal black hair and dark eyes that only served to accentuate his handsome features.

"I'm sure that I'm too much woman for you to handle." Cindy retorted.

"And quick witted too, I think that I might be falling in love." He put his hand over his chest and smiled at her.

"Before you go falling in love, it might be a good idea to tell me your name." Cindy told him logically.

"The name's Deek and I'm mighty pleased to meet you." Deek replied putting his hand out to her.

"I'm Cindy," Cindy said and she shook his offered hand.

They quickly fell into easy conversation and before either of them knew it, it was getting late and Cindy really needed to get going.

"Cindy, are you sure that I can't walk you to your car?" Deek asked her sincerely.

"Deek, it's really sweet of you to worry, but I'll be fine." Cindy replied throwing her purse on her shoulder.

"Until next time that we meet than, fair lady." Deek kissed her hand and smiled at her.

"And we've had such a good night and then you go have to go and ruin it by being cheesy." Cindy joked with him.

"You know that my quirkiness has only endeared me to you more." Deek flashed her one last smile before she walked out the door.

Standing out in the dimly lit parking lot Cindy quickly became aware that she had been stupid to refuse Deek's offer to walk her to her car.

"Get it together, Cindy, Lindsay would have a fucking field day if she could see you acting like a little girl right now." Cindy muttered to herself. The last thing she needed was her friend to find out that she had behaved like a big baby. She already thought of her as a kid anyway.

In every shadow she could swear that she saw danger lurking and she would shake her head to herself when it turned out just to be night sounds.

Cindy watched in horror as a black shape came streaking at her from the night. She let out a high-pitched squeal and then she laughed when she saw that it was only a cat that had caused that reaction.

"Really, Cindy?" She asked shaking her head at herself.

Her relief was short lived however when she felt a calloused hand clamp over her mouth and a strong arm wrap around her waist. Then out of nowhere she saw a figure rushing toward them and never had she been so glad to hear the words. "SFPD, Freeze." She felt herself falling to the ground, but she was free and before she knew it she was being pulled to her feet only to be greeted by a familiar face.

"Cindy, what the fuck are you doing here?" Lindsay demanded of her young friend.

"I was just checking out a lead for my story." Cindy replied looking down at her feet. For some reason when her friend looked at her like that she felt like a little kid again.

"So you decided that it was a good idea to come to the last place that our murder victim was seen alive?" Lindsay asked her with an incredulous tone in her voice.

"I thought I might be able to find something out." Cindy answered lamely.

"Sometimes I swear that you and Gus are the same age. Actually, Gus knows better than to do things like this." Lindsay raged at her.

"Come on, Linds, I'm only doing my job here." Cindy protested and then she thought of something else. "What are you even doing here?" she asked trying to put her friend on the defensive.

"I'm doing my job and that is all that you need to know." Lindsay retorted. She would be damned if she let the younger woman think that she was going to make anything on her.

The cop who had tackled the man who had grabbed Cindy walked over to them at that moment. "Inspector Boxer, I've got the perp in a squad car." He reported meekly.

"Thanks, Richie, you did good tonight." Lindsay said. That was pretty high praise coming from her.

Officer Richie Conklin actually blushed when she said that to him. This wasn't the first time that he had worked with Lindsay as a matter of fact he looked up to and admired her as a cop. "Thanks, Inspector Boxer." He said.

"Richie, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Lindsay?" Lindsay asked her expression softening. For some reason he brought out the mother in her.

"Just once more like always." Richie replied.

"Richie, what have you got on this guy so far?" Lindsay asked him.

"Just that his name is Gary Hart and he is a long standing member of the Road Kings. We don't have anything else right now, but I'm sure that we'll be able to find out more than moment we get him down to the station. Guys like this aren't usually known to lawyer up." Richie explained to her.

"Like, I said, good work." Lindsay told him again clapping him on the back.

"Whose the hottie?" Cindy asked once Richie was out of earshot.

"That's Officer Richie Conklin." Lindsay told her and then she glared at her. "You, young lady, are coming home with me, so I can find out what the fuck you were doing out here tonight. Cindy, this isn't the place for a single woman in her twenties to be running around." She said with a sigh.

"Lindsay, I have a career just like you do. If I want to become head of the crime section by the time I'm twenty-five then I have a lot of work to do." Cindy explained to her.

"Cindy, you're not going to be around to see that if you keep taking your life in your hands like this." Lindsay said rolling her eyes at the younger woman.

"You're one to talk." Cindy retorted with a snort.

"Come on, I'll take your statement at my apartment and we'll have a drink together or something." Lindsay said throwing her arm protectively around her shoulders.

"Linds, I really don't need you to babysit me." Cindy reasoned with her.

"I know, but it's something I need to do to give me peace of mind tonight." Lindsay replied.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Boxer, you're home earlier than I thought you would be." Gus greeted his mother when she walked in the door of their apartment. He didn't bother looking up from the video game that he was playing to see that Cindy was with her.<p>

"We weren't getting anywhere and I had a situation come up that I had to deal with. So, I decided I would come home early to my best guy." Lindsey replied. "Did you have a nice time with your dad tonight?" she asked him.

"Yeah, we had a pretty good time. You actually just missed him. He only dropped me off about half an hour ago." Gus informed her.

"Lindsay, I will have you know that I am not a situation." Cindy said sounding indignant.

"Cindy Lou Who, what are you doing here?" Gus asked cheerfully. To him Cindy was a good friend and an older sister all rolled into one.

"I don't know you might want to ask Lindsay, she is under the impression that she's my mother." Cindy replied rolling her blue eyes.

"I know she has to tendency to behave that way towards me too." Gus responded. His brown eyes were twinkling with mirth.

"Augustus, that's because I am your mother, thank you very much." Lindsay said smacking him on the back of the head.

Gus smacked himself in the center of the forehead. "Damn it, just when I think that I'm going to wake up from my nightmare, I am reminded that it's a reality." He muttered sarcastically.

"Augustus Chris," Lindsay said a warning tone in her voice.

"Come on, Boxer I was just having a little bit of fun." Gus replied not sounding repentant at all.

Lindsay could only shake her head at him. She knew that in his mind he was funny as hell. "I know and I'm going to need you to go have a little bit of fun in your room for awhile."

"Fine, I'm going to need to put all the dirty magazines away anyway if Cindy is going to sleep in there tonight." Gus said knowing better than to argue with her.

"Gus, I'm perfectly capable of sleeping on the couch." Cindy protested.

"Don't be ridiculous, Cindy, I'll probably be up half the night playing my game anyway. It's not going to hurt me to sleep out here." Gus said giving her a smile before he slipped out of the room.

"I'm just going to pretend like I didn't hear that comment about the dirty magazines, Gus." Lindsay yelled after him and she could see that he was shaking with laughter.

"Don't you wish you had another one?" Cindy asked her with a smirk on her face.

"I do and I'm looking at her right now." Lindsay zinged her.

"That was totally uncalled for, Linds." Cindy said clutching her chest like that last comment had hurt her.

"No, it wasn't, Cindy. You have no idea how dangerous what you pulled tonight was. You could have been hurt if not worse. You are a single woman in your twenties, that bar is no place for you to go alone. I shudder to think what would have happened to you if Richie hadn't been keeping an eye on you all day." Lindsay replied.

"You have people watching me now?" Cindy asked looking at her friend like she had lost her mind.

"I put Richie on you after we talked earlier because you had that look in your eyes that said you were going to do something to get yourself in trouble." Lindsay didn't sound repentant in the least bit.

"Who the fuck does something like that? Lindsay, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. I don't need you to have people watch over me." Cindy couldn't believe that her friend had gone that far.

"Cindy, Richie wasn't exactly just watching over you. He was watching you to see where you went, because you might have found something that we are missing." Lindsay explained to her.

"Lindsay, if you wanted to know something that I found out all you would have to do is ask me. I don't like the thought of you having me followed around like I'm some criminal." Cindy objected.

"It's a damn good thing that Richie was watching your ass. I shudder to think about what would have happened to you tonight without him there." Lindsay replied. She wasn't going to be sorry for keeping her friend safe.

"Lindsay, I'm never going to be able to stand on my own two feet if you don't stop treating me like a kid." Cindy reasoned with her. "Besides that I don't even know that cop that you've had following me around."

"Richie is a good kid and he is going to make a damn good cop one day. I wouldn't put someone on you that I didn't trust. He's just a couple years out of the academy and he has been working plain clothes since then. He has yet to be burnt and I knew that you probably wouldn't notice him following you." Lindsay replied.

"Don't you have to take my statement or something?" Cindy asked her with a sigh. She knew she should just give up on arguing with the older woman she would never let her win.

"I don't really need to take your statement. I saw what happened and honestly we're probably going to cut the guy loose, because that isn't our area of focus." Lindsay informed her.

"Just consider yourself lucky that Richie is cute and I don't at all mind hot guys following me around." Cindy said finally.

"Yeah, he is known as officer hottie by the girls who work the desks." Lindsay chuckled.

"I see that we're having a conversation about Richie." Gus said shaking his head as he walked into the room.

"I thought I sent you to your room?" Lindsay asked her son.

"You did, but I heard you two yelling at each other and I really didn't want to miss a chick fight." Gus replied.

"Gus, I don't know how you've managed to make it to almost sixteen with the way that you talk to her sometimes." Cindy said her mouth gaping open.

"She knows that I'm just joking or I would be in trouble." Gus assured her.

"In answer to your question, yes we were talking about Richie." Lindsay addressed the statement that he had made when he first walked in. She was choosing to ignore the other comment he had made.

"Richie is a pretty cool dude. I think that he is going to make a pretty good homicide inspector one day." Gus said giving his analysis of the situation.

"Gus, you two are only friends because he spends as much time down in the records' room as you do." Lindsay chuckled.

"I will have you know that Richie is grooming me to take over his job as soon as I'm old enough to start working at the department." Gus had never made any bones about what he wanted to do when he grew up. He really had no choice in the matter both of his parents were cops it was in his blood.

"That is if my paper isn't covering your success as a football player or a baseball star." Cindy joked with him.

"We'll just have to see about that, I haven't even played college ball yet." Gus replied like it was no big deal.

"As you can see my boy was born with overwhelming modesty." Lindsay cracked.

"Boxer, I'm just like you, so anything you say about me you're saying it about yourself." Gus pointed out to her.

"Augustus, I'm not amused by your bullshit." Lindsay said locking eyes with him.

"I happen to think that I'm a pretty damn amusing guy, mom. I don't know how you can't find me just a little bit funny." Gus retorted.

"You keep up with me and I'm going to ground you until you're thirty." Lindsay countered.

"We both know that that's not going to happen. You won't admit it to me, but you're counting the days until I leave for college." Gus could hand her bullshit right back to her, because they were so much alike.

"Linds, he really is you with facial hair." Cindy observed.

"I know that I have no one but myself to blame for the way that he behaves, but that doesn't mean that I like to be reminded of that little fact every damn time I turn around." Lindsay told her.

"Boxer, I feel the need to point out that you're being cranky right now. Knowing you the way I do that can only mean one thing, you haven't eaten in awhile." Gus threw out knowingly.

"I will have you know that I had something to eat at lunch, you should know this you were with me." Lindsay reminded him.

"Mom, that was hours ago." Gus pointed out. "Now, just tell Chef Gus what you want and he will make it. If it's not in his realm of ability his dialing finger is in very good shape." He went on putting on a fake Italian accent.

"Lindsay, I know that I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but he is pretty damn funny." Cindy said sounding highly amused.

Lindsay ignored Cindy. There was no denying that Gus was funny, but if she let him know that then she would never get him to be serious. "I could eat, but I really don't feel like you making a mess in the kitchen, so I guess you can order out. I know that you're probably hungry, I hope you two don't have any problems with Chinese food, because that's what I'm feeling right now."

"I have no objections to that." Gus said. He could always eat though, so his vote didn't count for much.

"Far be it for me to get in between two Boxers when it's feeding time, I know better than to do shit like that." Cindy said throwing her hands up in a sign of surrender.

"Cindy Lou Who, it is not nice to talk about us like that. We are not that bad when it comes to food." Gus protested.

"At least I'm not that bad about food, I can't say the same thing when it comes to my barbarian offspring." Lindsay said giving Gus a playful shove.

"Really, Boxer, who do you think I learned how to eat like a caveman from?" Gus asked his mother with an arched eyebrow.

"Tom," Lindsay replied automatically.

"I totally knew that Tom was the one who Gus learned all of his bad habits from. Because, you are totally perfect, Linds." Cindy said in a patronizing tone.

"Cindy, you're on thin ice as it is after what I caught you doing, don't push your luck, kid." Lindsay glared at her.

"I'm not a kid." Cindy huffed crossing her arms over her chest.

"Cindy, you're only like six or seven years older than my kid, that makes you a kid in my book." Lindsay reasoned with her, but she wasn't being serious.

"You are such a bitch when you want to be, Boxer." Cindy rolled her eyes, but there was a grin lighting her face.

Lindsay went to reply, but she was cut off when her phone rang. "Boxer," she answered with a sigh. "Damn, Richie, you're really on top of it tonight. I'll check it out in the morning. Thanks for the call, I'll talk to you later." she said before ending the call.

* * *

><p>Tom slipped quietly into his house in the hopes of not waking his fiancé. He really didn't want to have to explain why he was getting home so late. He still was not really prepared to explain the existence of his son to her. The precautions that he had taken proved to be moot when Heather met him in the living room.<p>

"Where you been so late, Tommy?" Heather asked him in her syrupy sweet voice.

"Some of the guys from the squad decided that they wanted to challenge the old man to a game of baseball. I would have called if I had thought about it." Tom lied easily. He didn't really consider it a lie, because Gus was part of the squad in everything but name and they had played a game of catch.

"I was worried, I was afraid that maybe something had happened to you." Heather replied.

"Nothing can touch me, you know that I spend most of my time behind a desk anyway. Besides that if something had happened to me one of the guys would have come over here to talk to you." Tom assured her.

Heather went to him and put her arms around him. "Just call next time, so that I'm not going out of my mind with worry."

"I promise that I will call you the next time that I'm going to be late." Tom promised. He knew that he would be making that call sooner rather than later. He had plans to get Gus to spend more time with him. He missed that kid like crazy; he had been around him since he was three after all.

Heather eyed him somewhat suspiciously. "You would tell me if there were someone else, wouldn't you?" she asked him.

Tom looked at her with confusion written on his face. "I would, but there isn't anyone else." He informed her. Again it wasn't a total lie, he didn't consider spending time with his son cheating on her. "What brought this on?" he asked in reply. He wasn't used to this coy thing, if Lindsay had had a problem with him she had just told him point blank what was bothering her.

"It's just that you have been unusually happy the last couple of days. I don't think you realize it, but you have been walking around her whistling and singing to yourself and that isn't like you unless something really exciting is going on." Heather explained to him.

Tom leaned down and pulled her into a kiss. "You've got nothing to worry about, you and I are solid." He swore to her. He knew that he needed to inform her and his son of each other's existence, but he couldn't bring himself to do it just yet.

* * *

><p>AN: Here's the next chapter, I hope you guys liked it. Until next time please review.


	5. Big Breaks

A/N: Thanks to all of my reviewers.

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Big Breaks<p>

"Boxer, my office." Tom greeted Lindsay the next morning as soon as she stepped into the squad room.

Lindsay rolled her eyes before following her ex into his office. "What do you want, Tom?" she asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Tom sat behind his desk and propped his feet up before answering. "I want to know how the case is coming." He told her.

"The case is coming along slowly, but we're making a little headway. I don't know why you're so damn worried about a murdered biker anyway." Lindsay replied.

"Look, the solve rate on our cases isn't very good. We have more open cases than we have closed cases at the moment and I'm getting a lot of heat from the brass to start doing better." Tom leveled with her.

"Tom, I can't do anymore than what I'm already doing. Jacobi and I have a solve rate that is second to none. I can't pick up the slack of all your other detectives, it's not even fair for you to ask me to." Lindsay raged at him.

"Linds, I'm only asking you to finish this case and then help close some of the open cases that are on the board." Tom pleaded with her.

"Tom, I've got a kid at home, I barely get to see him when I'm working a case." Lindsay reasoned with him.

"I promise you that I will keep an eye on Gus if you do this one thing for me." Tom bargained with her.

"I'll think about it." Lindsay relented.

"That's all I ask." Tom replied with a smile.

"And I asked you to tell your son about your fiancé and you haven't done that yet." Lindsay shot back at him.

"Just give me some time. I just got Gus talking to me again, I don't want to mess that up by bringing up Heather yet." Tom reasoned.

"Tom, I'm just telling you this, because I don't want this to blow up in your face. Gus needs you in his life just as much as he needs me. You're the only dad that he has ever known." Lindsay said leaving it at that. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work." She said over her shoulder before walking out of his office.

Richie was waiting for Lindsay when she walked back out into the squad room. "Inspector Boxer, you told me that you wanted to hear about the lead that I had the first thing." He greeted her.

Lindsay smiled at him and fought the urge to roll her eyes. She didn't know how many times she was going to have to ask him to call her by her given name. "Richie, we talked about this last night. If you can't call me Lindsay at least call me Boxer. My own kid even calls me Boxer most of the time." She said leading him by the elbow to her desk. "Now tell me about this lead." She instructed him.

"Well, when we brought Hart back to the station we called Inspector Jacobi in and he got out of him that your victim had had an altercation with some guys that my unit is familiar with." Richie reported. He worked undercover with the drug control unit.

"Do you have names for me?" Lindsay asked him.

"Bug and Wayne are there names. I've dealt with them before; they are a couple of small time meth makers. They really aren't too much to worry about." Richie assured her.

"Do you happen to know where I can find them?" Lindsay asked him hopefully.

"Boxer, I can do you one better, I can take you to them if you really want me to. Though I don't think they will be much help. Those two don't really have that killer vibe about them." Richie responded.

"Rich, you are going to make one hell of a homicide detective one day." Lindsay complimented him.

Richie looked down and blushed he knew that that was praise of the highest order coming from Lindsay. "Thanks, I'm just doing the best that I can here." he admitted.

"Richie, you're doing better than you think you are. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna detail you to homicide for the duration of this case. That way you'll have an in later when you're ready to move up in the department." Lindsay said smiling at him.

Richie looked at her wide-eyed. "You really mean that?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course I mean that. I know that you're going to be working out of this office one day." Lindsay told him.

"Thanks, Boxer, you have no idea how much this means to me." Richie gushed.

Lindsay smiled at him. "Just don't make me regret doing this." She warned him.

"I promise you that I will do the best work you've ever seen." Richie swore to her. He vowed silently that he would keep that vow no matter what it took.

"Kid, you better stick to that or Boxer here will be on your ass like white on rice." Jacobi warned him as he walked up on the pair.

"You ready to check out this lead, Warren?" Lindsay asked her partner.

"I'm ready anytime you are, Boxer." Jacobi replied nodding his head in her direction.

* * *

><p>"Claire, how much do you love me?" Cindy asked as she flitted into the morgue.<p>

"You know that I love you a lot, but I'm still not giving you any information on this case." Claire replied dryly knowing damn well what the younger woman wanted.

Cindy put her hand to her chest like she was shocked the Claire could think such a thing about her. "Claire, I will have you know that I didn't come here to fish for information on this case." She informed her.

Claire arched an eyebrow at her and shook her head. "Cindy, you're a reporter, you're always fishing for information even when you don't know it." She pointed out to her.

Cindy threw up her hands in a sign of surrender. "Ok, you caught me, I'm just trying to keep my job here." she retorted.

"And I would also like to keep my job, that's why I'm not telling you anything until Lindsay gives me the ok." Claire smiled at her.

"Damn, that will be the third Tuesday from never. Lindsay is very tight lipped about everything. If it was up to her the phonebook would be classified." Cindy groused.

"Cindy, I wish that I could help you out, but I just can't. I promise that as soon as I can tell you something I will." Claire promised her. She liked to throw the young reporter a bone every now and then when it was possible.

Cindy gave her a small grin. "Thanks anyway, Claire, I know that you'll give something as soon as possible."

"You'll be the first one that I call." Claire assured her.

* * *

><p>"So, Gussy, tell me what's been going on with you lately." A dark headed young woman said.<p>

Gus groaned and shook his head. "Kat, how many times do I have to ask you not to call me Gussy?" he asked. He was really too old to be called that.

"Just as many times as I have to ask you to call me Aunt Kat I would imagine." Katherine Boxer informed her nephew. She had the same dark hair and brown eyes that her older sister and her nephew had.

"You're only a few years older and yet you still insist that I call you aunt? What's in a name when you know how close we are?" Gus asked giving her a charming smile.

"You are so full of shit that your eyes are brown, Augustus Christopher." Kat replied shaking her head at him.

"Come on, we were both under the oppressive rule of Boxer. We used to be a team and now you treat me like this." Gus mock pouted.

"Yeah, we were a team when I was sneaking out of the house and getting you not to tell your mom." Kat retorted.

"You really know how to crush a guy, Kat, and here I thought that we were buddies." Gus shot back.

Kat rolled her eyes at Gus. "You know that I love you, Augustus Chris." She said smiling at him. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of getting to have breakfast with you?" she asked knowing that he had to want something.

"I was bored at home. Boxer has a case right now and Lt. Tom wants to spend time with me. The only way that I'm going to get any breathing room is if I come and spend time with you." Gus informed her.

"Is really nice to know that I'm just a way to escape your parents." Kat teased him.

"I'm not trying to escape mom and you know that. I just don't know how I feel about Tom right now. I don't know that I can let him back into my life after what he did to mom." Gus reasoned with her.

"Gus, I promise you that Lindsay is a big girl who can take care of herself. She's been doing it for as long as I can remember. Linds was the one who took care of everything after Marty picked up and left us. I remember that she always used to take care of me while mom was at work. Hell, after mom died she took me in and made sure that I finished school. So, you know that I love her just as much as you do, but she would want you to be happy and you know that." Kat leveled with him.

"I've never seen Boxer really and truly need another person, but she really needed Tom and he walked out on her. That case is the one that she will spend the rest of her life trying to solve and he walked when she needed him the most." Gus said and then he shrugged.

"No matter what, he's still your dad, Maverick." Kat pointed out to him.

"I sometimes think that mom would have better luck with men if it weren't for me. I mean my biological father walked out on her and then my dad walked out on her. I can't help feeling that maybe I'm the one to blame." Gus admitted with a long loud sigh.

Kat reached across the table and laid her hand on top of his. "Gus, I promise you that Tom loves you. You're a good kid, Gussy, you have a heart of gold and you would give someone the shirt off of your back, what's not to love?"

"You have to say that you're my aunt." Gus replied ignoring the fact that she had called him by that ridiculous name again.

"I don't say things that I don't mean and you know that. Tom loves you and he really just wants you to let him back in." Kat assured him.

"How can you be so sure of that, Kitty?" Gus asked breaking out the nickname that he knew she hated.

"Because I remember that Tom fell in love with you before he fell in love with Lindsay." Kat told him bluntly. "And don't be guilty of calling me Kitty again, you know that I hate to be called that." she fumed.

"And you know that I hate to be called Gussy, yet you still do it." Gus countered. She was just like an older sister to him, so they argued a lot.

"Gus, just let Tom back in, I promise you that you won't regret it." Kat told him bluntly.

"If we were talking about Marty would you be this forgiving?" Gus asked turning the tables on her.

"Hell no, Marty walked out on us and never offered us any bit of support. As far as I'm concerned that man is dead to me." Kat spit back with fury.

Gus threw up his hands in a sign of surrender. "Ok, I'm sorry that I asked that question. It's just that I needed some advice. I should have asked someone else." He knew that he had stepped over the line.

"Gus, you know that you can talk to me about anything. You just have the tact of your mother sometimes." Kat said reaching over to ruffle his hair.

* * *

><p>Lindsay rolled her eyes as she stepped out of her car. "This is a real classy place, Jacobi." She commented dryly. They had decided to come out without Richie, so they didn't blow his cover.<p>

"Hey, I don't pick these places I investigate them just like you do, Boxer." Jacobi replied with a sigh. He had known Lindsay forever and she still grated on his nerves sometimes.

They were in a dilapidated trailer park. The mobile home that they stood in front of now was in an utter state of disrepair. The shutters were hanging off and the siding was covered in moss and mildew.

"Well, I have to say that this is one of the worst places that we have ever investigated." Lindsay commented dryly.

"Boxer, do you want to tell me what has you in such a pissed off mood this morning?" Jacobi asked her quirking an eyebrow in her direction.

"It's nothing for you to worry about, Jacobi, just let it go." Lindsay snapped at her partner.

"Ok, forget that I asked. Let's just interview these subjects." Jacobi replied throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender.

"Jacobi, I didn't mean to bite your head off. I'm just dealing with bullshit like usual, that doesn't mean I should take it out on you though, Partner." Lindsay had come as close as she was going to, to apologizing and they both knew that. Lindsay Boxer didn't say she was sorry even when she should. The only person that got to see the softer side of her was her son.

"It's ok, Lindsay, I knew that you were difficult when I took you on as a partner." Jacobi retorted giving her a soft smile to show that he had accepted her non-apology.

"Do you want to take the back or should I?" Lindsay asked him. Things were good between them once again. They never stayed mad at each other for long.

"I wouldn't want to take your fun away from you." Jacobi gave her a grin.

Lindsay started off for the back of the trailer and flipped her partner off over her shoulder. "I'm only doing this, because I wouldn't want you to get hurt, old man." She called out in a hushed whisper.

If at all possible the back of the trailer looked even worse than the front. Weeds were grown up and Lindsay was reasonably sure that she had walked through a patch of poison ivy to get to the back door. She didn't have long to wait before she heard Jacobi knock on the front door and yell. "SFPD, open up."

Like a starting pistol at a horse race Jacobi's words and knock caused two younger looking men to come vaulting out the back door and the bathroom window.

"Why do they always have to run?" Lindsay asked herself her voice coming out as a whine. She pulled her gun and barked out. "SFPD, freeze,"

* * *

><p>Lindsay sat in the interview room across the table from Bug. He was the shorter of the two men that she had chased down earlier, well, that wasn't exactly accurate. She had tackled one to the ground and knocked the other down, by nailing him in the back of the head with a hubcap.<p>

Brady 'Bug' Jacobson sat handcuffed to the steel framed chair he was sitting in rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. His short black hair was actually well kempt considering the line of work he was in. "You didn't have to hit me like that, I didn't do anything wrong." he protested.

Lindsay arched an eyebrow at him and gave him a wry look. "If you didn't do anything wrong, why were you running?" she asked him reasonably. She knew damn well that he had done something wrong. All the materials needed for making meth had been present in and around his mobile home.

"Because, where I come from when the cops show up nothing good ever happens." Bug replied.

"So, it has nothing to do with all the meth paraphernalia that we found at your place?" Lindsay asked him.

Bug's eyes started darting around and he broke out in a nervous sweat. "Ok, so maybe we were making a little meth." He admitted after he discovered that he couldn't stand up under Lindsay's intense gaze.

Lindsay sat back in her chair and locked her hands behind her head. "Well, Bug, it just so happens that today is your lucky day. I don't work in the Drug Control Unit. I'm more interested in what you know about John Stevens' murder." She told him in a casual manner.

"All I know about John is that he used to buy dope from us." Bug stated firmly.

Lindsay straightened up in her chair and leaned over the table. "I call bullshit, I think you know more than you're letting on." She called him out.

"I swear I don't know anymore than that. I mean I saw him the other day before he was killed, but I swear he left my place alive." Bug stammered out.

Lindsay went to reply, but she was interrupted someone knocking on the other side of the two way mirror. "I'm going to give you a minute to think really hard about that and I'll be right back." She said excusing herself.

Jacobi and Richie were waiting for her in the room outside of the interview room. "What's going on, boys?" Lindsay asked them.

"We think that we might have found a lead about who might have killed our victim. But, I'll let Richie tell you, because he is the one who figured it out." Jacobi replied.

"While Inspector Jacobi was interviewing Wayne I was going over the records that we have on him and Bug. Bug's brother as it turns out is a member of Heaven's Rejects." Richie reported.

Lindsay looked at him like he had three heads. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?" she asked him snappishly.

"Heaven's Rejects are the main rivals of the Road Kings. I don't imagine that they would have been too happy about the fact that they were buying from their main supplier." Rich explained to her.

Lindsay rewarded him with a smile. "Alright, that gives us something more to go on."

"There's more," Jacobi went on. Lindsay made a give it to me gesture with her hands.

"As it turns out the bar brawl that Stevens got in six months ago was with a rival biker." Richie added quickly.

Lindsay gave the younger cop an even bigger smile. "Don't let this go to your head, but you did good, Richie. Now we have an actual lead to check out. Let's just cut these two shit heels loose and we can move on."

"Let's make them sweat for a little while." Jacobi suggested with a grin.

"I like the way you think, Partner." Lindsay said with what could only be described as an evil grin.

"I get the feeling that you two are gonna get me in trouble. At least that's what Lt. Hogan told me when he had me detailed here earlier." Richie said.

"Stick with me, Richie, I won't ever steer you wrong." Lindsay assured him looping her arm around his shoulders.

* * *

><p>Cindy, Claire, and Jill were sitting in their usual booth at Suzie's when lunchtime rolled around. The only member of their little club that was missing was Lindsay.<p>

"Has anybody heard from Boxer today?" Jill asked brushing a strand of blonde hair out of her face.

"I saw Lindsay this morning, but that was only because she forced me to stay the night with her last night." Cindy informed her friend.

"I'm not even gonna ask, because I'm sure that I don't want to know. For some reason you seem to bring the mother out in her." Claire commented with a roll of her eyes.

"So, maybe I did something that could be deemed a little dangerous last night, but I promise you that's not the big deal that Lindsay is making it out to be." Cindy replied.

"Like Claire said, we don't want to know. Though, I am a little curious as to where Gus is right now. Linds is not really in the habit of leaving him home by himself. This is like day three of this investigation. I kinda expected a visit from him today." Jill rambled a little bit.

At that moment Lindsay walked in with her phone to her ear. She motioned for Claire to move over when she approached the booth so she could sit down. "Augustus Christopher, I don't care how old you are, at least let me know before you get on the bus to go halfway across the city." She said sounding annoyed. "Look, I don't even have time to deal with you right now. Just have Kat drop you off at home later. I shouldn't be home too late tonight." She responded to whatever her son had said. "Yeah, I love you too, behave yourself." She finished before hanging up.

"What did the boy wonder do this time?" Jill asked. She knew that there was no one on the face of the earth that Lindsay cared about more than her son.

"Nothing too bad for him. He just took the bus across town to see my sister without telling me first." Lindsay replied.

"Linds, this is gonna be hard for you to hear, but the boy is going to be sixteen in a couple of weeks. You have to loosen the reins just a little bit. You raised him to be a good boy and he has never do anything to make you think otherwise." Claire counseled her.

"Yeah, I know, it's just that letting him grow up is a little harder than I anticipated." Lindsay admitted.

"Claire, do you think you could convince her that I'm an adult and I don't need her to baby sit me?" Cindy asked hopefully.

"No, you obviously need someone to babysit you. After the stunt you pulled last night, you're lucky that I don't have a tail put on you." Lindsay told her bluntly. She scratched absentmindedly at a red patch of skin on her right forearm.

"Linds, it's really not as bad as you're making it out to be." Cindy sighed rolling her eyes.

Lindsay switched to scratching a spot on her neck. "Cindy, my baby sister is just about the same age that you are and she knows better than to do what you did last night."

"Of course Kat knows better than to do something like that, you did put the fear of God in here." Jill pointed out to her.

Lindsay was now scratching a spot on her left arm. "So not the point." She said before she went back to scratching her neck.

"Linds, what gives? Why do you keep scratching like you have chicken pox?" Claire asked the doctor in her coming out.

"I think I might have gotten into some poison ivy when we went to arrest some suspects earlier." Lindsay muttered before attacking her right arm again. "Jacobi so owes me big for this one." She bitched.

"Linds, stop scratching, you're just going to make it spread." Claire cautioned her. Lindsay however ignored her friend's advice. "Lindsay, you're not going to be a happy camper if that gets on your face. You still have the oil from the plant on you and it will spread until you take a shower."

Lindsay put her hands in her pockets to keep from scratching anymore. "There I hope you're happy now, mom." She shot out sarcastically.

"I see you don't like it so much when the shoe is on the other foot." Cindy grinned at her smugly.

"Jill, tell the girl wonder over there if she wants to know about the case and if she doesn't want me to come over this table and strangle her, she will keep her mouth shut." Lindsay told her friend.

"Cindy, I think it would be advisable for you not to say anything else that will piss Lindsay off. She is just like a small child when she gets sick or hurt." Jill relayed fighting off a smirk.

Lindsay lifted her left hand and extended her middle finger. "I say this with the utmost love and affection that I can muster at the moment, but go fuck yourself, Jilly." She countered insincerity dripping from her words and a fake smile plastered on her face.

"Lindsay, that wasn't very lady like." Tom said as he approached the group of women.

Lindsay groaned and shook her head. "Not now, Tom. I'm entitled to at least having my lunch in peace."

"Don't worry I didn't come to hassle you about the case, I just came to see if you know where Gus is." Tom replied throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender.

"He's with Kat and I can only imagine that the two of them are up to no good. You know that it's not a really good idea for them to put their heads together." Lindsay informed him.

"Oh, well, I was just hoping that I could have lunch with him, but since he is across town that is out of the question." Tom retorted lamely.

"Tom, you could always go track him down. God knows that nothing bad would happen to the squad if you took an extended lunch. Who knows, I might even get something done without you constantly hovering over my shoulder." Lindsay told him bluntly.

"No, if he went all the way across town it's because he wanted to escape from us for a little while." Tom chuckled. He knew how his son's mind worked a little too well.

Lindsay couldn't help shooting him a quick smile. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking myself." She surprised everyone by actually agreeing with something that Tom had to say.

"Just don't take too long a lunch, I would like it if you could solve this case soon." Tom told her before walking away.

"My God, I swear that that man can't just let me do my job." Lindsay muttered once he had walked away.

"It's because he's still sweet on you, Linds." Jill threw out there.

"Jill, I love you, but I really don't need advice from a woman who breaks up with her boyfriend at least two times a week." Lindsay retorted.

"Ok, how about you tell about this case?" Cindy asked her eyes lighting up like a kid's on Christmas morning.

"Saved by the nosey reporter." Claire commented shaking her head. She just wished that Lindsay would stop being so blind to anything that concerned Tom.

* * *

><p>"Gus, it's getting late in the day. We should probably think about doing something about dinner." Kat commented from her perch on Lindsay's couch. She was curled up with a fashion magazine while Gus played video games.<p>

Gus was so enthralled in the game he was playing that his tongue was sticking out of his mouth and it took him a minute to realize that she was talking to him. "Did you say something, Kat?" he asked her pausing his game.

"I was just saying that we should get something to eat." Kat repeated rolling her eyes at his antics.

"Yeah, that sounds good, I could eat right now." Gus replied. He could pretty much eat any time of the day though.

Kat threw her head back and laughed at him. "Augustus Chris, for some reason that does the opposite of surprise me. You have always been able to put away food."

"Hey, I'm a growing boy, I will have you know that it hurts my feelings when you talk about me like that." Gus retorted with a mock pout on his face.

"Gus, I promise you that you're not as funny as you think you are." Kat said biting her lip to keep from laughing at him.

"You know you think I'm funny just like everybody else does." Gus countered with a charming smile.

"Gus, that smile is going to make you a very happy man one of these days. Women aren't going to be able to resist you when you flash those dimples of yours." Kat gave him her professional judgment on the matter.

Gus looked down at his feet and blushed. "I have no clue what you're talking about right now, Kat." He mumbled.

"Gus, you have to know how good looking you are and girls your age can see that." Kat teased him.

"I don't do much dating." Gus replied with one of his famous shrugs.

Kat grinned at him. "That's just because you haven't given much thought to dating yet." She joked ruffling his hair.

"No, I learned a lesson from watching you date. It would probably be better if I didn't bring my dates around Boxer. She had a tendency to scare all of your boyfriend's off." Gus reminded her.

"She only scared off the ones that had some reasoned to be scared of her. Besides that, she made Tom do all the dirty work." Kat could admit now that her sister had only had her best interests at heart, when she was younger it had been much harder to see that.

"I can't date, if I date no one will be around to make sure that Boxer remembers to eat and sleep when she gets caught up in a case." Gus reasoned with her.

"Trust me, the last thing that Lindsay needs is someone to take care of her. If she even knew that you thought that she would shoot you on principle." Kat chuckled.

"She threatens to shoot me anyway. I don't even have to do anything and she is on me." Gus retorted.

Lindsay walked through the door in time to hear that. "Augustus Christopher, that's because I'm not amused by your bullshit." She pointed out to him.

"Linds, you've been telling him that for as long as I can remember." Kat laughed at the look her older sister shot her.

"In this length of time you would have thought that the kid would have started listening." Lindsay retorted. "I'm afraid to ask, but what are you two up to tonight?" she asked out of curiosity.

"We were just debating what to do for dinner." Kat informed her.

"I don't care what we do as long as I don't have to cook after the day I've had that is the last thing that I want to do." Lindsay said sinking down on the couch beside her sister.

Gus went to the kitchen and came back with a beer in his hand. "Here, you look like you could use this." He said handing it over to Lindsay.

"Bless you, my son, you will be rewarded in heaven for taking pity on your mother." Lindsay replied scratching the spot on her neck.

"What are you doing home so early, Boxer?" Gus asked he hadn't expected his mother to be home until much later.

"Jacobi and I made a lot of progress with the case today, so we decided that it would be safe to knock off early. Besides that I had a little incident with some poison ivy earlier and I was in no mood to work all night and be uncomfortable while I did it." Lindsay replied.

Kat put her hand over her mouth to stifle the giggle that she felt coming on. "Now that you mention it, you're kinda splotchy looking."

Lindsay glared at her harshly. "I'm glad that you find this so damn funny. This is worse than that time that you and Gus gave me chicken pox." She bitched.

"How were we supposed to know that you had never had chicken pox?" Kat asked unable to keep the amusement out of her voice.

Lindsay shot her another glare, but she didn't get the chance to reply, because a knock on the front door interrupted her. "Come in, it's open." She called out.

Richie stepped through the door a moment later with a bag from a drugstore in his hand. "I hate to bother you at home, but I thought that maybe you could use something to put on that poison ivy." He said holding the bag out in front of him.

"It's not a problem, Richie, thanks." Lindsay said standing to take the bag from him.

"I should probably get going." Richie said turning to leave.

"Don't be ridiculous, Rich, we were just about to do something about dinner, you should stay." Gus spoke up.

"Only if it's ok with your mom." Richie replied. He really liked spending time with Gus. He was like the little brother that he never had.

"Of course you can stay, Richie." Lindsay told him like he was being ridiculous.

"Ok, if you're sure that I'm not intruding." Richie said shoving his hands in his pockets.

"You're not and you're saving me from these two." Lindsay said pointing at Gus and Kat.

Kat stood up and offered him her hand. "Since my sister obviously isn't going to introduce us, I'm Kat." She smiled at him.

Richie took her offered hand. "Richie Conklin, I work with your sister," he said smiling so that his dimples showed.

Kat felt herself melt when he flashed those dimples at her. "My condolences, I know how difficult my sister can be."

"She's not that bad." Richie replied with a goofy grin.

"You only say that because you don't have to live with her." Gus chimed in. He could see that Kat and Richie had forgotten that other people were in the room.

"Gus, I thought that you were gonna do something about dinner?" Kat asked him annoyed by the interruption.

"I am gonna do something, I'm gonna order pizza. I don't feel like cleaning up a mess in the kitchen." Gus replied.

"That sounds like a damn good idea to me." Lindsay agreed.

"Boxer, you only say that because you don't do domestic well at all." Gus joked.

Lindsay glared at her son. "Gus, I'm not amused by your bullshit." She told him rolling her eyes.

"I know that you're not, but that doesn't stop me." Gus said a jocular tone in his voice.

"Tommy, you seem a little distant tonight." Heather told her fiancé as she sat across the dinner table from him.

Tom shook himself out of the revile that he had been in, in favor of acknowledging his fiancé. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"I said that you seem a little distant." Heather repeated herself.

Tom let out a loud long sigh. "I'm just a little stressed out from work." He lied to her. In all reality his thoughts were on Lindsay and his son.

"Are the higher ups still coming down on you?" Heather asked casting a sympathetic look in his direction.

"Yeah, you could say that and then I had to ask Lindsay to help close all the open cases that we have and as I thought she didn't take it well." Tom replied.

"I can't imagine how difficult it has to be for you to work with your ex." Heather told him.

"It's not that bad, we don't even talk unless it's case related." Tom lied again. Really they talked about two things work and their son.

"Well, I'll help you forget all of that tonight." Heather promised him with a seductive look on her face.

Tom smiled at her. "I'll gladly take you up on that offer."

* * *

><p>AN: Here is the next chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm sorry for long wait.


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